Member Rating

Compare Prices on Carnival Paradise Mexican Riviera Cruises

Paradise lost

Sail Date:
August 2011

Destination:
Mexican Riviera

Embarkation:
Los Angeles

Took a recent cruise we took on Carnival Paradise. We have been with carnival twice before, and on several other cruise lines. This time I took my entire family and they were so excited about the experience since we had talked it up. However, within an hour of being on the ship my brother asked me why the employees were treating us as if we were prisoners being transported. I did not have an answer for him and this was the first time I felt like it too. Not sure if it is an attitude difference between the pacific crew and the Caribbean crew. We take most our trips in the Caribbean and are always met with smiles, but not this time.

Not only was the attitude horrible, there was also a lot of things physically wrong. Below are the ones I remember. Needless to say, we did not have a good time. It is truly unfortunate, I wanted to make sure my parents, my brother and his family had trusted me in selecting carnival and the whole thing made me look bad in front of them. More

â¢ The TV in the room did not work. It took a trip from three different people over a four hour period to get it to work. That is a lot of wasted time on a 36 hour cruise

â¢ The vanity in our room was missing a mirror. My wife had to stand sideways to try to get ready for dinner so she can look in the half mirror available. It may be okay at home, but leaves a bad taste when the whole idea of a vacation is to have everything go right.

â¢ The pool was freezing cold. We went in and got out once and that was pretty much the extend of our use of it. The vacation includes the use of the pool, is it unreasonable to expect it to be reasonably warm so we can go in?

â¢ This was the worst of all of them. When I checked my bank account upon our return, there was a charge difference for 12.13 from the last statement I had received. Called customer service and they said it was for in-room beverage. We did not use any of the items that was in the room, and I ALWAYS make sure those things are exactly where they were when we got in before we leave. The bottle of water and six soda cans were intact in their original location when we left. Yet, I was charged and took half hour of my time to get my money back. This is sneaky and disgusting. The amazing thing was that the agent was so casual about it, as if it is routine that she gets these calls. Nice way to steal few more bucks off of the passenger even after they left the ship.

Once again, I know some of these are petty items (not the sneaky charge though), but we did pay a substantial amount of money for a 36 hour cruise and we expect everything to be perfect. The sneaky part about adding the beverage to the bill is just really despicable. I wish I had the time and energy to follow up with past passengers and see if this is a common behavior for carnival and see if there is potential for a class action lawsuit. Less